Kristen Faulkner will be taking on her first race with BikeExchange-Jayco at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, with the rider from the United States stepping into the action to add extra firepower to the Women’s WorldTour team on the cobbles.
BikeExchange-Jayco have already delivered a promising opening salvo for the season, securing their first international podium of the year, even though two key leaders – Faulkner and Amanda Spratt – are yet to pin a number on in Europe. After a run of wins over the Australian summer, first-year professional Ruby Roseman-Gannon came second on stage 1 of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana while Alexandra Manly came fourth. Georgia Baker also came fourth on stage 4.
“We are really happy with how the team has started the year in Australia and Valencia. We made some big changes in the roster during the off-season, and seeing how this group of riders is coming together so well has been great,” Sports Director Martin Vestby said in a team media release. “We’re going to the opening weekend of the Classics with some careful expectations, and with a lot of positives to build on.”
The two squads for Opening weekend will be an even split of new and returning riders, with Faulkner joined by Roseman-Gannon, Baker, Teniel Campbell, Arianna Fidanza and Ane Santesteban for Saturday's 128km race between Ghent and Ninove in Belgium.
“Nieuwsblad, as the first Classics race of the season, is always a big fight with everybody back on the cobbles, said Vestby. “We’re coming in with a really strong team and we have some ambitions for them to be up there in the mix, fighting for some good results.
“I think our strength in the team now is that we have multiple riders who can produce results from different scenarios, and that makes it even more exciting going into the opening weekend.”
Last year it was Grace Brown and Sarah Roy who led the charge on Opening Weekend but with both riders having now moved on, the challenge of acclimatising to the cobbles for BikeExchange-Jayco will be combined with new riders acclimatising to the team and continuing riders adapting to the raft of new signings.
“Nieuwsblad gives us a great opportunity to see how fit we are as individuals and how prepared we are for the season, but also for the team to see how we ride together and what we need to work on,” said Faulkner.
After Nieuwsblad opens the weekend of racing there is then Omloop van het Hageland on Sunday, where the 29-year-old who has had two years racing with TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank will be lining up for a second race alongside Roseman-Gannon and Campbell. Nina Kessler, Chelsie Tan – who is making her team debut – and Urška Žigart will round out the squad.
“For me personally, I'm hoping to be able to get some good results for the team,” said Faulkner. “We have a lot of good sprinters, and if we have numbers towards the end we have the talent to finish it off.”
